Consultants this week laid out a proposal to add a fourth elementary school in New Canaan.
On Monday, at the Board of Education’s regularly scheduled meeting, representatives from MP Planning Group and SLAM Collaborative walked officials through a three-phase plan to create a “North School” off of Smith Ridge Road/Route 123 to address capacity concerns while renovating four other schools in town.
MP Planning Principal Pat Gallagher said there’s been “a longstanding desire within the community to move to a K-5 and 6-8 grade configuration at the schools, so we looked at the best options to move towards this goal.”
“Also, there are capacity concerns at our schools moving forward, and we want to create smaller learning communities by shrinking the student population at the elementary and middle schools,” he said during the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School and via YouTube.
Gallagher detailed how, while schools should strive for 90 to 95% occupancy of their planning capacity, East School is operating at nearly 100% and West School is nearing that mark.
“Buildings at or close to 100% of their capacity experience operational impacts,” he said. “Look at East, where the orchestra room was displaced…all three elementary schools were last renovated in 1997, and they reflect educational programs of those times.”
According to MP Planning’s enrollment projections, elementary class sizes are expected to increase by approximately 140 students over the next six years, and overall utilization is projected to exceed 100%.
While Darien, Greenwich, and Westport average 408 students per elementary school, New Canaan averages 504, according to Gallagher.
Although expansion of the existing schools may seem like an obvious solution, Gallagher explained why it’s not that easy.
“The existing sites are too small and are not conducive to expansion,” he said. “The sites are too small to support moving fifth grade to the existing elementary schools; in fact, sites are undersized relative to the current population, including just K-4. State guidance would recommend a 15-acre site for our elementary schools, yet the current sites are between 12 and 13 acres of usable space.”
To meet the desire to alter the grade configuration while also addressing capacity concerns, MP Planning decided that building a new school was the best solution.
“We did extensive research throughout town to find a possible location for a new school, and the only site that met our criteria was the Clark Property,” Gallagher said.
The Clarke Property, located off Smith Ridge Road, is a 21.1-acre landmass deeded to the town by Dorothy Q. Pardee Clark in memory of her husband, Harold Benjamin Clark. It was given in 1956 “to be held and used by the Town for Town purposes, including schools, parks, or other public purposes,” according to the deed. The property’s location on the north side of town makes it an ideal place for the new school, officials said.
The first phase of the proposed plan involves building the new North Elementary School on the Clark Property, with a target enrollment of 475 to 500 students. The school would be approximately 80,000 square feet, which is similar to other elementary schools, allowing the town to transition (back) to a K-5 and 6-8 grade configuration.
The second phase involves modifying the remaining elementary schools to redesign the buildings in alignment with modern educational programs. These modifications would create parity between existing schools and the new school, while allowing for similar enrollments of 470 to 500 students.
The third and final phase would occur once the fifth-grade students move out of Saxe Middle School and the lower level is vacated. The lower level space would then house the district-wide Pre-K program and the district-wide Central Office. Saxe would move to a 6-8 alignment, and thus its enrollment would shrink so that it’s no longer the largest middle school in the state.
According to Gallagher, on a fairly aggressive schedule, a state grant application for funding to help offset costs for the new North School would be submitted to the state in June of 2026, and the school would open in the fall of 2030. The second and third phases are expected to be completed in 2031 and 2032, respectively.
Jim Hoagland of SLAM Collaborative walked through the design of the proposed North School.
“Only half of the site is actually buildable because of the wetlands and the setbacks,” he said. “However, we identified the buildable area and started dropping footprints throughout the site to see where we could optimize the building location and the access. The design we created is something that we are very comfortable with.”
The design features a lengthy main access road that allows for buffering around surrounding residential neighborhoods, multiple play and field areas, an emergency exit route via Michigan Road, a partly separated academic area and public engagement space, and ample parking and drop-off areas.
According to the presentation, the new school would cost $98 million to $109 million, with the town’s share being $90 million to $100 million if a state grant offsets some of the cost. Combined with the other two phases of possible expansive renovation, the entire project would cost the town anywhere from $171 million to $286 million.
Board of Education members asked the methodology used for the population growth assessment (a detailed analysis going back to 2006 looking at the number of births compared to the number of kindergarteners as well as an in depth housing growth analysis), when the elementary schools were originally built (the 1950s and 1960s), how much surrounding towns are investing in similar projects (Darien’s Ox Ridge project was 65 million dollars; the Long Lots elementary school construction in Westport was 103 million), if there is enough room for the adjustment of North School if modifications to the plan are needed pending soil testing (the school building can be moved farther south if more room is needed), how will developers account for the drainage (storm water detention would be an important part of the process, but also many designs focus on retention onsite so as to not create any problems for neighbors), what’s the buffer size for the surrounding neighborhood (50 feet), whether the future phases are calculated with today’s dollars (the costs are escalated for the timeline of the project), what the cost would be of a complete renovation of an existing school (the challenge is the sites as their is not enough land to support a reconstructions), how real estate has reacted to new schools in other towns (From an enrollment perspective, there was a big increase in migration into the Ox Ridge attendance zone; people are paying attention to where investments are being made), what the next steps would (soil testing, storm water retention analysis, determination of conditions of existing elementary schools, an enviromental screening of the North School land, and a tighter definition of educational program to create a lens for the renovation and building).
Board member Matt Campbell noticed that the project would be completed after the schools’ capacity problems had already peaked, so he asked whether there were any alternatives to better address the short-term needs.
Gallagher said there are no perfect options, but Westport added portables to an elementary school until construction was completed. Other districts have chosen to bite the bullet and “put art on a cart for a year.”
Board member Julie Toal asked Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi whether this school would allow for a possible transition to a two-tier start time system.
“I think it could be a possibility as we could look at 6-12 on one tier and the four K-5 buildings on another,” Luizzi said. “It would be a much more efficient system, especially for kids who live near the proposed North School and currently have very long bus rides.”
Board of Ed Vice Chair Phil Hogan questioned why building upwards on existing buildings was not an option.
“When the buildings were first designed, they were made for one or two-story constructions,” Kep Morhardt from SLAM Collaborative said. “When you create those foundation systems, they are designed to be one or two stories. To add vertically, you would have to have an invasive remediation program.”
Interesting math once again. So for a projected 140+ students over the next 6 years, we spend $171 – $286 million which equates to about $1,200,000 to $2,000,000 per student.
It seems cheaper to pay to send these kids to private school AND pay for a full college education than trying to Make America Broke Again.
My home town of Concord Mass spent over $300 mm on three new schools from 2016-present time. During the same period, my parents’ taxes went up 38% (combo of mill rate and assessed values). Before embarking on expenses like this, taxpayers deserve a well thought out explanation for the tax implications of these projects along with what happens for cost over runs. I would also like to understand the consultants’ student growth estimates because the student population has actually decreased ~4% from 2020-2025 for NCPS. As someone who has invested in companies/businesses for 25 years and read many consultant reports, I am confident that consultants are never right. Niche.com just ranked NCPS #1 in the State of CT. While its important to maintain our wonderful schools, lets not spend to spend.
Can you put details to the tax rate increase? Concord’s website indicates their mill rate has gone down by 7% in the last 5 years ($13.26 in 2025 vs $14.23 in 2020) and an achieved site indicates its down from $13.92 in 2016.
To get a 38% increase on property taxes the value of the home would have to be assessed 44% higher over the same time period. This is a trade I think many folks in town would accept.
It’s a big project with a big price tag and needs to be carefully thought through. I trust the school administration to do this analysis and to present it truthfully and in good faith.
I’m sure they’ll be able to show their work on any of the calculations and assumptions.
Kevin – It’s just semantics – it doesn’t matter if the mill rate goes down if everyone’s assessed value goes up – albeit not equal and at varying degrees of up. Net taxes are still increasing. I would also add that the consultant says we will have an increase of 140 elementary school students in the next six years – In 2020/21 we had 4,218 students in total. This past school year we had 4,103. So adding 140 in six years is only 25 more students than we had in 2020. In fact, consultants in 2015 hired by NCPS projected enrollment peak enrollment of 4,365 for 2020; granted this was the Covid year but we are still only talking about 4,229 by 2031 if this consultant happens to be right.
Asking a different question then – can you show evidence of the tax increase being driven by the school spending? Inflation over the time period is calculated to be between 31-38% using different sources and methodology.
Spending is a legitimate concern but thriving towns (and businesses) invest in themselves to improve their current and future conditions. Our elementary schools are crowded, our middle school has an extra grade (and technically 2 schools in it?), and our administration had to buy an office building.
Maybe the finances don’t work and this goes away. Maybe it’s amazing. But dismissing it for anecdotes or consultants being involved does not give it a fair shake.
Well water and septic for an elementary school seems sub-optimal. Why was Irwin Park disqualified?
Robert (no relation to Robin)
It must be April 1 — April fool’s days what a joke
Build a new School — Really funny
Did you Know there are 26 empty classrooms in K-4
I didn’t make it up — it’s in the 2012-2022 New Canaan
long term Facilities Capital Plan
Little known fact the 5th grade was in in elementary
before they moved it to Saxe
East has 36 classrooms
South 35
west 33
total 104
all three schools were expanded with the insight for
higher enrollments in 1996
there are only 78 classes being used
Now they say they use them for other things HA HA another joke
during the Saxe debate I asked why not send the 5 grades back to where they
But that wouldn’t have gotten them 12 new classrooms in Saxe for
13 million
enrollment peaked in 2018-19 at 4,245 current 3,943 -302
staff back in 2011 was 688 with 4,195 students
staff is now 795 with 3,943 + 107
back when the Saxe debate was going on they claimed enrollment was going to be over 4,280 in 2025– which was odd cause the State projected that New Canaan would lose 1,974 in the 5-19 age group by 2025
they seemed to be right for lots of reasons one being the birth rate at an all-time low
So there at it again with the jokes HA HA HA
been here 38 yrs — no one will laugh when their taxes go up
to pay for their joke mine have gone up 400%
so the joke is WE NEED A NEW SCHOOL@100 million
And can we use the Clarke property to build affordable housing instead so Karp and his comrades stop destroying our beautiful town?
It would have been a much better comment if Mr. Vachula had presented his data without the belittling attitude. No one is trying to pull a fast one over the people of New Canaan. It’s a big proposal and it deserves, and will receive, close attention, but acting superior and know-it-all does not serve anyone’s interest.
Ben
It doesn’t deserve attention and
Any more money spent on this subject
it’s a waste of taxpayers money
And sometimes you have to get
People attention with humor
I didn’t belittle anyone
And superior yes I am on the BOE
Did you know we have had 55 non resident teachers children in the system don’t know
How many now they won’t tell
How does that effect enrollment
Did you know we pay 4 + million a year
To send residents children to outside
School about 60 students
Those are headlines the facts behind them
Takes time and effort to find and understand
What goes on in the schools
I’m been doing this for over 15 yrs
Looking at their budget every year
Very involved
Do you know Ben they have
Increase their budget by 24%
In 4 budget cycles from
91 million to 114 +22 million
We heard for years enrollment is up
We need more teachers
Can’t argue with that right
But conversely we lost 300 students
We should be cutting teachers right
Do you know their rule of 20
If the class size goes above 20
They created a new class
Maybe I was just venting my
amazement at their quest for
More and more of our money
At GE we use to call it empire building
Facts are facts don’t kill the messenger Ben
If you don’t like how the data is supplied
It’s the data that counts
My 4th child just graduated from 4th grade last year. I’d like to note that her grade is huge. South School was maxed out. We had 7 sections for her grade, which means every year there was a shuffle with a completely new group of kids in her class. This is too big for an elementary school. Class sizes were at max levels for state class size requirements, and having 5th graders in a middle school setting is a challenge. I don’t think it serves our children well. Fifth graders were moved out of elementary due to space constraints and I would love to see them placed back in an elementary school setting. Furthermore, with 8-30G we will see more apartment complexes built in our town which will increase demand. I think Dr Luizzi is forward thinking and this plan would really benefit our children. Yes it will be expensive but it deserves a deep dive.
Maria
You must be one of the school’s propaganda MOM’s
probability on one of the PTA committees
well I happen to know all the class sizes for all grades for last year
what was your child class size that you consider max out
was it 15 17 19 20
and you are wrong about the state class size
and you are wrong about why the 5 grade was moved to Saxe
Saxe was the HS and when they built the new one
they needed to fill Saxe
And I agree the 5 grade should have never gone to Saxe
I suggested that if not moving the whole 5th grade back you could
ask the parents if they would want to keep their children in
elementary for one more year and let them
Just wondering
This thread is closed, thanks everyone.